Dis an' Dat: To Teach a Toddler

Isabelle, AKA "Da Belle," playing in the sprinkler for the first time.

Since I posted our YouTube videos of Isabelle's early attempts at phonics and letter identification, several moms have asked me how I taught her.  I thought this would be an easy way of sharing what I've done so far with her. 

I feel the need for a couple of disclaimers.  First, while I think my daughter is probably pretty smart, I don't know that she's a genius.  At 20 months of age, I don't think she has learned anything that your toddler couldn't learn, and I'm sure that your toddler knows many things that she doesn't.  She has no interest in learning her colors and isn't too enthused about numbers either (unless Daddy counts like the Count on Sesame Street, which she finds hilarious). 

My second disclaimer is that I really don't know much about teaching toddlers.  While I did teach high school English for several years and I did learn a little about phonemic awareness in my graduate reading courses, I've never been a pre-school teacher.  Anyone who has taught pre-school (at home or professionally) or any mom who has homeschooled her children knows much more than I do about teaching phonics to a child.

Doesn't everyone read in a laundry basket?

Introducing Phonics to an 18 month old
A couple of months ago, I had a conversation with my friend, Jessica.  She was telling me all about the pre-school she had taught at and how quickly her daughter learned the alphabet and phonics.  Jessica said that each letter was connected to an animal, and it really helped her toddler learn her letters.  My first thought was "I've got to buy that curriculum!"  It's an Abeka curriculum, by the way, and I'm not certain that I'll use it, but it was a springboard for my thoughts on the subject. 

I started thinking about animals and the alphabet, and I realized that if Isabelle could tell me that a lion says "roar" or a cat says "meow," then she should be able to tell me that B says "buh."  And while I don't expect her to identify letters or read a book just yet, this could make phonics and reading so much easier. 

So I started teaching her the various letter sounds.  It took very little time because I taught her while we were doing other things.  While driving in the car or shopping for groceries, I would ask her "What does B say?"  Pause.  "B says buh-buh-buh."  Eventually, she was able to answer my questions.  I try to make some of the sounds pretty silly.  For the F sound, it looks like we're blowing out candles on a cake, and she finds that hilarious, so she learned F after hearing it only once or twice.  Currently, she knows most of her letter sounds from A through M, although she forgets some of the ones we've learned more recently.

Troubleshooting
Some letters make multiple sounds, and at 20 months, that's not a concept she understands yet.  I've tried to teach her the slightly less common sound.  It's pretty obvious that A says A (long a) or C says C (soft c).  Instead, I want her to understand that A says ah (as in apple, the short a) and that C says "ck" (as in cow, the hard c).  But Isabelle has it stuck in her head, however, that C says C and that E says E (instead of eh), and that's OK.  She's not incorrect, and even if she were, my education professors always told us to "accept approximations"--accept it when children are "close enough," but continue to model what is proper, and eventually they will say it correctly. 

And we often just skip I.  It's the first letter of her name, so I really wanted her to learn it, but it doesn't make much sense to her, either because she confuses it with her actual eyeball or because it's a sound that she doesn't notice.  Telling her that I says i-i-isabelle doesn't help either because she doesn't notice the I in her name.  If you ask her to tell you her name, she'll say "Da Belle."  No I at all! 

Dis an' Dat
I've been wanting to purchase alphabet cards for the wall and an alphabet puzzle to help Isabelle learn to identify her letters.  In the meantime, we've used this program to help her:  Starfall's Alphabet and Phonics.  I haven't done it with her too often because I haven't wanted to overwhelm her, but the first day I introduced it to her, we spent about 15 minutes watching A & B several times.  Several hours after playing the game, she was able to identify the letter B correctly, and she continues to be able to identify it about 95% of the time in various scenarious.  She can identify A only about half the time. 

Fortunately, she's in a stage where she is constantly asking about "dis."  She points to everything in her room, in the house, and in books, asks "dis," and waits for us to tell her what "dis" is.  Damian and I know she says "dis" because she's a toddler, but we find it pretty funny, since dis an' dat are common Cajun expressions. 

Isabelle asks about objects, even those she already has a word for, but we tell her anyway.  One of her favorite books to ask "dis" about is a Baby Einstein book.  It's small, bright, and colorful, and every page has about 30 different things for her to point to and ask about.  Eventually, when I quiz her in her little books, I find that she has absorbed at least some of the words we've been telling her.   

She has started asking "dis" about her alphabet book, which really makes me excited.  I recently read that the average 21 month old learns 10 new words a day!  Now they won't be able to say all 10 of these words, but they can understand them.  I'm sure that for Isabelle, some of these words will include the very objects and letters she asks about.

Learning in the everyday moments
Most of toddler learning takes place simply by playing, exploring, and engaging in every day tasks, so I really spend hardly any time truly working with her on something.  She is often asking me these questions while I'm folding laundry or cleaning house, although I often stop to sit with her and read.  Sometimes she really wants me to read to her, but other times she just wants to ask about the pictures, and that's OK too. 

My friend, Jacque, made this wreath for Isabelle, and it's hanging on the door of her bedroom.  It has recently become a subject for "dis" questions, so now every time I close the door for her naptime, Izzy likes to ask me about each letter on the wreath.  I look forward to the day when she can identify all the letters.  Anything can become the subject of a letter hunt.  It's just a matter of taking the time to teach and learn in the every day moments.